ALEXANDRIA, MN – The Bismarck Bobcats rang up their 28th win of the season Saturday, pulling away from the Alexandria Blizzard for a 4-2 win at the Runestone Center.
Battling through a scoreless first period, the ‘Cats opened the scoring 4:31 into the second when Sam Rendle guided a 40-foot shot through a pile of bodies in front of Alexandria netminder Rob Tadazak—giving Bismarck a 1-0 lead.
Bobcat forward Dominic Panetta extended that lead just 32 seconds later, burying a Ryan Jacobson transition centering feed for his 19th tally of the year and a 2-0 edge.
Alexandria battled back, however, cutting the Bobcat lead in half with 9:21 left in the middle frame as Michael Pieper fired a bad-angle snap shot from the half-boards over the blocker of ‘Cats goalie Ryan Faragher, cutting the visitors’ lead to 2-1 after two periods.
Bismarck blueliner Tom McCarthy answered at the 9:35 mark of the third, taking a centering pass from Jason Fabian and popping a shot off Tadazak and in to restore the Bobcat lead to two goals at 3-1.
The Blizzard once again sliced the Bobcat advantage to one goal 2:46 later when Zach Fulton fired a point shot on the power play off a Bobcat defender and past Faragher to make it a 3-2 game.
1:41 later, the ‘Cats responded with a power play tally of their own as Sean McKenzie powered a loose puck over Tadazak and in for the final margin with 5:08 remaining in regulation.
Faragher stopped 34 Blizzard shots to improve to 18-5-6 on the season and help the ‘Cats (28-9-7, 63 pts) maintain a nine-point edge on the second-place Owatonna Express (25-15-4, 54 pts); Owatonna shut out the North Iowa Outlaws for the second straight night, winning 7-0 at home to keep pace with the Bobcats.
Tadazak took the loss for Alexandria, turning aside 16 Bobcat attempts and falling to 5-4-2 on the season.
The Bobcats return to action on Thursday as they host the Express for the first of two 7:15 PM games at the VFW Sports Center.
Thursday’s game will be broadcast locally on the radio home of Bobcat Hockey, Super Talk 1270, KLXX-AM, and worldwide at BismarckBobcats.com via B2 Networks. The pre-game show starts at 6:45 PM.
You won\’t want to miss any of the games this season, so order your Season Tickets, Family Packs and Group Nights today by calling the Bobcat Hockey Office at 701-222-3300 or by e-mailing the office for more information at gobobcathockey@aol.com.
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